"Swordferns and salmonberries cover my sweetheart's backyard, way up in the mountains, to get there I must travel far, following a turquoise river, through the deep, dark forest green, where the swordferns and salmonberries fill the spaces in between." ~Laura Kemp Every time I pick juicy, ripe salmonberries along a creek, this song by one of my favorite local folk musicians plays ...
Book, Music, and Film Reviews
Fruition
I am pleased to announce that we are in a time of fruition on the homestead, with all the hard work over these last couple of years paying off in cherries, blueberries, strawberries, marionberries and thimbleberries. The cherries are especially exciting because it is the first time I have ever had my own crop of homegrown cherries. There was a cherry tree here when we moved in that never fruited, ...
The Sacred Heart Sessions
My new favorite album is being released today, and I thought I would share. The Lowest Pair , the amazing banjo duo of Kendl Winter and Palmer T. Lee, has recorded their second album of acoustic goodness in an old church, and aptly named it "The Sacred Heart Sessions." Some of you may remember my post about the Lowest Pair's House Concert back in June: Give Me the Banjo, when I had the good ...
The Trail
I always loved reading stories of pioneers on the Oregon Trail when I was growing up. The idea of packing it all up and heading off into the wild unknown completely intrigued my imagination. I often pretended to be a pioneer when playing out in the woods, and on special occasions at school, we would play the Oregon Trail game in the computer lab, and I was in bliss. As an adult, I have tried to ...
Changing Course is Possible
Yesterday marked a new chapter for the Elwha River and for river restoration efforts all over the world. With the final blast and demolition of the Glines Canyon Dam, the Elwha now flows unimpeded from its headwaters in the Olympic Mountains down to the Strait of Juan de Fuca. As the largest dam removal project in the United States, this is an especially significant event. There is a wonderful ...
Arctic Homesteading Documentary
Several years ago, when I was on an Alaskan homesteading documentary kick, I discovered this gem called "Braving Alaska," which I mentioned in a post: Braving Alaska: Food for Adventuresome Thought. Aside from the various high-quality documentaries on Dick Proeneke's homestead, I was unable to find anything else substantial at the time, and the Alaskan homesteading documentary kick eventually ...
Give Me the Banjo
"Give me the banjo...When you want genuine music -- music that will come right home to you like a bad quarter, suffuse your system like strychnine whisky, go right through you like Brandreth's pills, ramify your whole constitution like the measles, and break out on your hide like the pin-feather pimples on a picked goose, -- when you want all this, just ...
The Blackberry Bushes String Band
I first heard The Blackberry Bushes Stringband when my friend Thena brought some of their albums over that she had bought at the Oregon Country Faire last year. In her ongoing mission to support independent artists and share good music, she had the stereo going with a pile of albums from various bands she had enjoyed that day. I hadn't payed them any mind beyond enjoying some good string ...
A Gardening Song for Living on the Earth
Today is the 40th Birthday of Alicia Bay Laurel's artistic homesteading manual, Living on the Earth. So many of my childhood homesteading dreams were fueled by my parents copy of this wonderful book that I was delighted to discover an accompanying folk album she recorded called Music for Living on the Earth. It's an earthy collection of songs about waking up early, going ...
Goin’ to the Hootenanny
Sometimes we all just need to kick up our heels and dance, and that is exactly what we did this last Thursday and Friday. Deadwood Revival, a four-piece, progressive old-time jamgrass ensemble from my hometown came travelling through last week, playing one night at a local watering hole and one night at the civic center in a nearby town. Since moving out into the country, evening cultural ...